Patients who visit hospital emergency rooms for care, return home, and then return to the ER within 30 days have better outcomes than those who are admitted to the hospital from the ER.
And their care costs less as well.
jama1This according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
What does this mean?
According to the study’s abstract,

These findings suggest that hospital admissions associated with return visits to the ED may not adequately capture deficits in the quality of care delivered during an ED visit.

To learn more about the study and its surprising findings, see this Fierce Healthcare article or go here for a link to the JAMA article “In-Hospital Outcomes and Costs Among Patients Hospitalized During a Return Visit to the Emergency Department.”